Erdogan complains to Macron about criticism of Afrin campaign

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan instructed French President Emmanuel Macron in a telephone name that he was disturbed by claims about Turkey’s army marketing campaign in Syria’s Afrin area that he stated had been baseless, a Turkish presidential supply stated on Friday.

Amongst Turkey’s Western allies, France has been one of many largest critics of the two-month-old Turkish army operation in opposition to the Kurdish YPG militia in Afrin, which borders Turkey. Turkish forces stormed Afrin metropolis on Sunday.

Final month, the USA and France referred to as on Turkey to halt the operation in northern Syria to adjust to a United Nations decision requiring a ceasefire in all of Syria. The decision excluded army operations in opposition to Islamic State, al Qaeda and teams related to them or different teams designated as terrorist organizations by the Safety Council.

Ankara, which considers the Kurdish YPG militia a terror group, strongly rejected the decision from its two NATO allies, accusing France of giving “false data” on the difficulty.

In Friday’s telephone name, Erdogan additionally instructed Macron that the rights of Turkish Cypriots over hydrocarbon sources within the japanese Mediterranean must be protected, the presidential supply stated.

A vessel charted by Italy’s state-controlled Eni was unable to succeed in an space Cyprus has licensed for drilling due to Turkish army maneuvers in a two-week standoff in February.